First and foremost, I love what I do. I grew up in a super conservative home, with my grandparents, who lived through the depression and always had the mindset of "You work to make money, nothing else". For the longest time, I felt the same way. All I wanted was a job that I could support myself with, and maybe buy the loft space I always dreamed of. It didn't matter what it was as long as it paid the bills.
Then my senior year of high school happened, and I took a basic photography class because I figured it would be an Easy A. It was my year, and I decided that the last thing I wanted to do was devote myself to something overly academic. I had done that for 4 years, I just wanted one semester without an AP class.
Life isn't predictable. I fell in love with the dark room. Not only did I love going out and taking pictures, but I loved turning them into the final product...spending hours in the darkroom, 'perfecting' certain photos, and coming up with something that I enjoyed.
So I decided to pursue photography. I went to the college I had picked out at the beginning of the year, but decided to continue doing photography on the side while I worked on my Political Science degree. The more and more time I spent taking pictures, and processing them, the more I realized that I had found something I truly loved doing.
I'm very blessed to be in the spot that I am now. I get to do what I love, and other people see the value in it too. My style comes from that last year of high school; I'm still drawn to candids, I enjoy emotive portraits, and I find beauty in the simple things.
The only difference from then and now? Now, I'm confident in pursuing photography, and now, I know what I want to do with the rest of my life.
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It took me 10 years since college to realise that my hobby was worth more to me than all the little jobs that were there to make money and nothing else. I've been retouching professionally for less than a year, previously it'd been what I did in my spare time for eight years.
ReplyDeleteGlad we both found meaning in work away from the idea of 'work to make money'. :)
Danny
I consider myself very lucky to have found something I love so much now. I'm graduating in a little over a semester, and I'm glad that I know what I want to do now, rather than going a different route and regretting it.
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